The cancer cells are different from healthy cells in reproduction, adhesion, proliferation rate, maturation and function (specialization), which all might affect the electrical and chemical signals recorded from the cell. Biologists introduce the cancer as a disease, characterized by the autonomous aimless and excessive proliferation of cells.
The growing cycle of the biological cells includes three main phases. The three main phases include (i) attachment to a substrate, (ii) spreading or stretching of cell until splitting, and (iii) proliferation or mitosis. The spreading stage, as one of the important pre-proliferation stages, may contain many distinguishable parameters between normal and malignant cells. In addition, the effect of anti-cancer drugs may be distinguishable at the spreading stage. The spreading stage may occur about 10 hours before the proliferation stage. Therefore, it may be advantageous to determine the cancerous state of the cell during the spreading stage and also determine the anti-cancer drug effects during the spreading stage. However, the impedimetric monitoring of the spreading stage in normal and cancerous cells has not been carried out for diagnosis applications to date.
Hence, there is a need for fabrication of cancer cells ECIS biosensors with the ability to diagnose the cancer cells at their spreading stage for a faster response.